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Asia markets combined following massive miss in U.S. jobs knowledge

Asia markets mixed following big miss in U.S. jobs data

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US employment data released on Friday fell far short of expectations as the economy added just 235,000 jobs in August. Economists polled by Dow Jones had sought 720,000 new hires.

Meanwhile, in line with estimates, the unemployment rate fell from 5.4% to 5.2%.

“In our view, the setback in the labor market recovery and the rise in serious Covid infections will cause the FOMC to wait before announcing it will reduce its monthly security purchases. We now expect the FOMC to reduce its monthly security purchases by 10 billion at its November 3rd meeting, “Commonwealth Bank of Australia analysts wrote in a Monday note.

US markets are closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

Currencies and oil

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its competitors, hit 92.164 after falling over 92.4 recently.

The Japanese yen was trading at 109.81 per dollar, stronger than the 110.1 levels seen against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7433 after falling below $ 0.732 last week.

Oil prices were lower on the morning of Asian trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude oil futures falling 0.91% to $ 71.95 a barrel. The US crude oil futures fell 0.88% to $ 68.68 a barrel.

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Asia nations give away land, gold, cattle, houses

Asia countries give away land, gold, cattle, homes

An elderly man will be given Covid-19 vaccine at the AstraZeneca Central Vaccination Center in Bang Sue Grand Station on July 13, 2021 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Sirachai Arunrugstichai | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Businesses and local governments in Asia are developing creative ways to promote vaccinations among people who are still reluctant to get one – distributing everything from gold to farm animals.

The Asia-Pacific region is battling a resurgence of Covid as major cities in China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia report rising cases daily, particularly from the highly contagious Delta variant of the disease.

But most of Asia is struggling with low vaccination rates as vaccination hesitation persists and vaccine misinformation spreads.

In addition, many countries cannot get enough doses for their populations.

According to Our World in Data, vaccine progress is lagging behind Europe and North America. On August 8, 41.6% of Europeans and 38.8% of North Americans were fully vaccinated, compared with only about 11.6% of people in Asia.

Hong Kong: apartment, gold and a private flight

Hong Kong companies are giving awards to raise vaccination rates amid public distrust of the government.

Several sponsors, including the real estate developer Sino Group, have arranged a raffle for the vaccinated. The grand prize is a new one-bedroom apartment valued at approximately Hong Kong $ 10.8 million ($ 1.39 million).

To support a government vaccination campaign, Cathay Pacific Airways has awarded 20 million airline miles in Asia. A winner can host a private party on board the airline’s new Airbus A321neo.

An organization of gold trading firms – the China Gold and Silver Exchange – is giving away Hong Kong dollars worth 1.1 million Hong Kong dollars to those who have received two Covid shots.

Incentives provided by companies totaled more than $ 73 million Hong Kong ($ 9.4 million), the South China Morning Post reported in June. According to Our World in Data, about 35% of Hong Kong’s population was fully vaccinated on August 8th.

Philippines: land, cattle and sacks of rice

Both local governments and private companies are doing their part to get more people to vaccinate.

The community of San Luis Pampanga has started a campaign to give vaccinated people the chance to win a cow.

Congresswoman Camille Villar offered a number of incentives to the people of her town when they were vaccinated. Las Pinas City residents have a chance of winning a home, motorcycles, and even groceries if they receive at least one dose of Covid vaccine, the Manila Times reported.

On the outskirts of Manila, in Sucat, according to Reuters, 20 people have the chance to take a 25-kilogram sack of rice home with them every week if they get their injections. The initiative aims to attract poorer residents who need an extra boost to get vaccinated, the news agency said.

While some give out rewards, others threaten those who don’t get vaccinated.

After weak participation in several vaccination centers in the capital Manila in June, the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is said to have warned residents: “If you do not want to be vaccinated, I will have you arrested.”

As the city prepared for a two-week lockdown on Friday, Reuters reported that thousands of people showed up at vaccination centers across Manila.

Only 9.8% of the country’s population was fully vaccinated by August 5, according to Our World in Data numbers.

Indonesia: live chickens

Indonesia has the second highest number of cases in Asia, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

According to several media reports, government agencies in Cipanas, West Java Province, are distributing 500 live chickens to vaccinated seniors.

About 85% of Indonesia’s population are Muslim. Despite the religious approval of the country’s top Islamic body, many are concerned about whether the vaccines are halal or allowed by Islam.

“I was afraid that if I was vaccinated I would die immediately …

According to Our World in Data, 8.7% of the total population of Indonesia are fully vaccinated on August 8th.

India: gold, mixers and discounts

In India, McDonald’s fast food chain is offering vaccinated customers a 20% discount.

Goldsmiths in Rajkot, Gujurat, reportedly came together to encourage people over the age of 45 to get vaccinated. Women were given gold nasal needles for vaccination while men were given hand blenders, the Hindustan Times said.

India reported Friday that the country had given more than 500 million doses of vaccine.

However, so far only 8.2% of the population is fully vaccinated, as the figures from Our World in Data show.

According to local media reports, the country is threatened with a third wave of infections in the coming months.

China: eggs

China has been slow to start its vaccination program as the government was relatively successful in controlling the virus outbreak in the early days of the global pandemic. As a result, many citizens did not see the urgency of vaccination at first until new niches emerged in the country.

In March this year, a Beijing health center gave away 2.5 kilograms of eggs to residents who were 60 years of age or older when they received their first vaccination, the Associated Press reported.

However, some regions took a tougher approach.

Officials reportedly visited villages to persuade them to get vaccinated and were told it was their national duty, the Washington Post said.

The country had administered nearly 1.7 billion doses of vaccine as of August 3, the state media reported in Xinhua, citing the National Health Commission.

– CNBC’s Joanna Tan contributed to this coverage.

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Asia markets fall after Dow drops in a single day amid Covid resurgence fears

Asia markets fall after Dow drops overnight amid Covid resurgence fears

SINGAPORE – Asia Pacific stocks fell in trading Tuesday morning after Wall Street stocks tumbled overnight, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeting more than 700 points.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.63% while the Topix index lost 0.79%. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.31%.

Mainland stocks were lower in early trading, with the Shanghai composite falling 0.56% while the Shenzhen component lost 0.18%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was near flattening.

The S & P / ASX 200 in Australia lost 0.37%.

MSCI’s broadest index for Asia Pacific stocks outside of Japan was down 0.19%.

On Tuesday, China left its corporate and household credit benchmark rate unchanged – the one-year loan prime rate (LPR) remained constant at 3.85%, while the five-year LPR was also left at 4.65%. According to Reuters, the majority of traders and analysts in a quick poll expected that both the one-year and five-year LPR would not change.

The markets in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore are closed on Tuesday for public holidays.

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Wall Street decline

Overnight in the States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 725.81 points to 33,962.04 while the S&P 500 lost 1.59% to 4,258.49 points. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.06% to 14,274.98.

The losses on Wall Street came as concerns grew over the potential impact of a Covid resurgence on the global economic recovery. Several countries in Southeast Asia are struggling with infection resurgence, and Goldman Sachs recently lowered its 2021 growth projections for most of the region.

Currencies and oil

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its competitors, hit 92.849 after a recent rebound from below 92.8.

The Japanese yen was trading at 109.48 per dollar, stronger than levels above 110.5 against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7339, up from $ 0.738 yesterday.

Oil prices were higher on the morning of Asian trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude oil futures rising 0.52% to $ 68.98 a barrel. US crude oil futures rose 0.74% to $ 66.91 a barrel.

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Health

The place Does Weed Come From? A New Examine Suggests East Asia.

Cannabis Was Domesticated in East Asia, New Study Suggests

By sequencing genetic samples of the plant, they found that the species had most likely been domesticated by the early Neolithic period. They said their conclusion was supported by pottery and other archaeological evidence from the same period that was discovered in present-day China, Japan and Taiwan.

But Professor Purugganan said he was skeptical about conclusions that the plant was developed for drug or fiber use 12,000 years ago since archaeological evidence show the consistent use or presence of cannabis for those purposes began about 7,500 years ago.

“I would like to see a much larger study with a larger sampling,” he said.

Luca Fumagalli, an author of the study and a biologist in Switzerland who specializes in conservation genetics, said the theory of a Central Asian origin was largely based on observational data of wild samples in that region.

“It’s easy to find feral samples, but these are not wild types,” Dr. Fumagalli said. “These are plants that escaped captivity and readapted to the wild environment.”

“By the way, that’s the reason you call it weed, because it grows anywhere,” he added.

The study was led by Ren Guangpeng, a botanist at Lanzhou University in the western Chinese province of Gansu. Dr. Ren said in an interview that the original site of cannabis domestication was most likely northwestern China, and that the finding could help with current efforts in the country to breed new types of hemp.

To conduct the study, Dr. Ren and his colleagues collected 82 samples, either seeds or leaves, from around the world. The samples included strains that had been selected for fiber production, and others from Europe and North America that were bred to produce high amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the plant’s most mood-altering compound.

Dr. Fumagalli and his colleagues then extracted genomic DNA from the samples and sequenced them in a lab in Switzerland. They also downloaded and reanalyzed sequencing data from 28 other samples. The results showed that the wild varieties they analyzed were in fact “historical escapes from domesticated forms,” and that existing strains in China — cultivated and wild — were their closest descendants of the ancestral gene pool.

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Hashish Was Domesticated in East Asia, New Research Suggests

Cannabis Was Domesticated in East Asia, New Study Suggests

By sequencing genetic samples from the plant, they found that the species was most likely domesticated in the early Neolithic. They said their conclusion is supported by pottery and other archaeological evidence from the same period discovered in what is now China, Japan, and Taiwan.

But Professor Purugganan said he was skeptical of the conclusions that the plant was developed for drug or fiber consumption 12,000 years ago, as archaeological evidence shows that cannabis was consistently used or present for these purposes around 7,500 years ago.

“I would like a much larger study with a larger sample,” he said.

Luca Fumagalli, author of the study and a biologist in Switzerland who specializes in conservation genetics, said the theory of Central Asian origin is largely based on observational data from wild samples in that region.

“It is easy to find wild samples, but they are not wild types,” said Dr. Fumagalli. “These are plants that have escaped captivity and adapted to the wild environment.”

“That’s why you call it grass, by the way, because it grows all over the place,” he added.

The study was led by Ren Guangpeng, a botanist at Lanzhou University in western China’s Gansu Province. Dr. Ren said in an interview that the original location of cannabis domestication was most likely in northwest China and that the discovery could help in the country’s current efforts to breed new strains of hemp.

To conduct the study, Dr. Ren and colleagues 82 samples, either seeds or leaves, from around the world. Samples included strains selected for fiber production and others from Europe and North America bred to produce high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the plant’s most mood-altering compound.

Dr. Fumagalli and his colleagues then extracted genomic DNA from the samples and sequenced them in a laboratory in Switzerland. They also downloaded and re-analyzed sequencing data from 28 other samples. The results showed that the wild varieties they analyzed were indeed “historical escapes from domesticated forms” and that existing varieties in China – cultivated and wild – were their closest offspring of the ancestral gene pool.

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Health

Goldman cuts Southeast Asia GDP forecasts as delta variant spreads

Goldman cuts Southeast Asia GDP forecasts as delta variant spreads

Students, wearing face masks amid the Covid-19 pandemic, sit by a mural depicting the Indonesian flag at an Islamic junior high school in Banda Aceh on June 10, 2020.

Chaideer Mahyuddin | AFP | Getty Images

SINGAPORE — Covid-19 infections are surging in several major Southeast Asian economies, and that has led Goldman Sachs to cut its 2021 growth forecasts for most of the region.

The spread of the more transmissible delta variant has pushed daily Covid cases to record highs in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in recent weeks. That has led to more stringent restrictions in Indonesia and Thailand, and an extension of restrictions in Malaysia, Goldman economists wrote in a Thursday note.

In the Philippines, the coronavirus spread has made loosening of social-distancing measures “more unlikely” this year, the economists added.

Renewed virus surges and tighter restrictions are likely to “weigh significantly more” on growth in the second half of 2021 than previously thought, the economists said.

Goldman slashed its growth forecasts by more than 100 basis points for Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. Singapore and Thailand saw a smaller cut by the bank.

Slow vaccination pace

The rapid climb in Covid infections across Southeast Asia has come as vaccination progress in the region — except for Singapore — has lagged many countries such as the U.S. and the U.K.

Singapore has one of the fastest vaccination rates globally, with over 41% of its population fully inoculated, according to the latest data compiled by online statistics portal Our World in Data.

But the rest of the region is much slower: Malaysia has fully vaccinated 12.4% of its population while Indonesia has inoculated 5.7% of its people fully, the data showed. Less than 5% of the populations in Thailand and the Philippines have been fully inoculated against Covid.   

Singapore, which tightened social-distancing measures in early May, started to ease restrictions last month. Goldman economists predicted that Malaysia will be the next to follow suit in the fourth quarter, while the other Southeast Asian economies will only do so in the first half of 2022.

Goldman said stronger global growth will benefit trade-oriented economies such as Singapore and Malaysia the most. Malaysia, which is a net commodity exporter, is also likely to gain from higher commodity prices, the bank said.

Meanwhile, “larger exposures to sectors like tourism, lower exposures to global trade, and limited policy buffers, are likely to push sequential growth lower in Indonesia and Thailand, and keep the sequential growth rebound more muted in the Philippines than our prior expectations,” it added.

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JPMorgan strategist on one of the best time to purchase Asia shares

JPMorgan strategist on the best time to buy Asia stocks

SINGAPORE – The best time to buy Asian stocks could be now, a JPMorgan strategist said Wednesday.

Mixo Das, Asian equity strategist at the bank, said US markets had hit record highs while Europe and Japan were nearing all-time highs. However, the Asian markets have not seen the same trend.

“We’ve been down quite a bit in Asian stocks since the highs in February and the way we look at it, our framework tells us that now is probably the best time to take risk in Asia,” he told CNBC. Squawk Box Asia. “

That said, investor positioning in Asia is “extreme, extremely low” right now, while valuations have fallen to more normal levels. If macro dynamics in the region begin to stabilize, Asian stocks could rise significantly, he added.

The strategist said Asian corporate earnings could increase 60% to 70% year over year in the second quarter – largely in line with estimates.

Covid and vaccination effects

Parts of Asia like South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia are grappling with spikes in Covid-19 infections at a time when vaccination advances are lagging behind countries like the US and UK

That said investors have become used to seeing new waves of Covid cases. He cited the example of India, where a “catastrophic wave of infections” earlier this year did not rock the stock market because investors understood that the country’s long-term fundamentals were likely to remain intact.

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But the spread of a more transmissible Delta variant and relatively low vaccination rates across Asia could weigh on stocks that would benefit from an economic reopening, Das said. Those stocks include those in the hospitality, leisure and travel sectors, he said.

The strategist added that JPMorgan favors stocks that respond to changes in interest rates, such as banks. His comments come as the US Federal Reserve raised its inflation expectations and brought forward the timeframe for a rate hike.

Chinese technology stocks

Speaking of opportunities in China, Das said technology stocks are still a “buy” for investors with a long-term horizon. He said that Chinese tech companies still have growth prospects, even if the pace of growth may slow due to tighter regulatory scrutiny from Beijing.

Shares in major Chinese internet companies like Tencent and Alibaba were hit when Beijing curbed monopolized business practices and regulated the collection and use of data.

“If you look at the valuation of these names against benchmarks around the world, it’s ridiculously cheap right now,” Das said, without naming any specific Chinese technology stocks.

“We see incoming inquiries from long-term, patient investors looking at these names and thinking about whether this story will be played out in five, 10, 15 years. And most of the time the answer is yes.”

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Asia Grapples With Delta-Pushed Outbreaks

Asia Grapples With Delta-Driven Outbreaks

Indonesia has reported almost twice as many coronavirus cases as the US in the past few days. Malaysia’s per capita number of cases is roughly on par with Brazil and Iran. And the recent increases in Covid in Japan and South Korea have led to strict new restrictions on movement there from Monday.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, the Delta variant is causing new outbreaks in locations where transmission was previously kept relatively low but the rate of vaccination was too slow to contain recent outbreaks. One result is that everyday activities will be restricted again, just like in the fearful early days of the pandemic – even as the West returns to normal.

Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world, is a case in point. His government once hoped that its archipelagic geography and young population would save it from a debilitating eruption. But only about 13 percent of its 270 million people have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and Delta’s rise is marginalizing its healthcare system, forcing some patients to hunt for oxygen.

On July 3, the government closed mosques, schools, shopping centers and sports facilities on two of Indonesia’s largest islands for two weeks. But the daily average of new cases – more than 33,000 on Sunday – has continued to rise. Officials said Friday they would extend the same emergency rules to other islands.

Intensive care units in and around the capital Jakarta are at full capacity, doctors who have received the vaccine from the Chinese company Sinovac have fallen ill or died. The government has announced that it will give a third dose of the Moderna vaccine to around 1.5 million health workers starting this week.

In other Southeast Asian countries, too, the percentages of the population who even got a shot are in the single- or low-double-digit range. And as variant infections multiply, some are experiencing their worst outbreaks yet.

In Myanmar, where health workers went on strike to protest the military coup in February, cases are skyrocketing and schools were closed until July 23. People in several Malaysian cities are rubbing themselves under strict lockdowns as the country reports the highest per capita fall in the region. Vietnam is restricting freedom of movement in its two major cities and is trying to import vaccines. And at Thailand’s largest international airport, a terminal is being converted into a field hospital.

Richer countries in the region have more resources to fight the virus. But they too are vulnerable because they have made little progress in their vaccination campaigns. In Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea, less than one in three people has had an injection, according to a New York Times tracker.

New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, reported the largest daily increase in cases this year on Sunday, as well as Australia’s first coronavirus-related death this year, a woman in her 90s. Sydney, the state capital, has already been on lockdown and authorities have warned it could be extended beyond July 17 when it expires.

South Korea reported 1,378 new cases on Saturday, the third day record in a row. The government plans to increase the restrictions in the capital Seoul and some neighboring regions to the highest level from Monday. Schools are closing, bars and nightclubs are closing, and no more than two people are allowed to meet in public after 6 p.m.

And in Japan, the fourth state of emergency will come into effect in Tokyo on Monday, less than two weeks before the start of the Summer Olympics. Restaurants, department stores and other businesses are being asked to close early, and the organizers of the Summer Games have announced that they will be banning viewers from most events in and around Tokyo. A ceremony marking the arrival of the Olympic torch in town was held in an almost empty park late last week.

On Saturday, Fukushima Prefecture said it would also exclude spectators from Olympic events due to the rising number of cases, reversing a position announced two days earlier by Olympic organizers.

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Asia faces ‘bumpy street’ forward as Covid instances stay excessive

Moody's Analytics on Covid outbreaks in Asia, Fed rate hikes in 2023

A woman is given a dose of Covid-19 vaccine during the mass vaccination at Tanah Abang Textile Market in Jakarta, Indonesia on June 19, 2021.

Agung Kuncahya B. | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

Asia’s fight against the coronavirus is far from over, but an expected increase in the spread of Covid vaccines in the coming months could defuse the situation, according to investment bank HSBC.

India was the hardest hit country this year, suffering from a devastating second wave that saw cases soar between February and early May. Although the daily reported numbers of infections have dropped significantly from a peak of over 414,000 cases in a day, the South Asian nation still reports an average of 50,000 cases per day.

Countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Nepal have seen a sharp surge in cases recently, while the numbers of infections in other places continue to rise. Nations like Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and China have also faced outbreaks recently.

“It’s easy to believe or tempting to think we’ve got through it all, but the reality is, if you look at Asia ex-India, we’re currently seeing record numbers of daily infections,” said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Wednesday.

“There are still terrible human tariffs in many parts of Southeast Asia and even in India,” he said.

Delta variant

Experts say the closely watched coronavirus mutation known as the delta variant is partly responsible for the rise in new cases in many parts of the world. First discovered in India and now present in over 80 countries, Delta is said to be more contagious than previous variants.

Although it remains unclear whether the variant is more deadly than previous strains, its increased transmissibility, especially in environments with low vaccination and minimal social distancing, means that in absolute terms it is likely to infect more people, according to analysts at political risk advisory group Eurasia Group.

“Countries with younger populations and wetter climates could therefore experience more severe outbreaks than previous waves, even if the proportion of young people with serious illnesses remains the same,” said Eurasia Group analysts in a recent statement. They added that there is a growing risk of health system overload in many emerging markets.

Asia lags far behind North America and Europe in vaccines. The data showed that just over 23% of the population received at least one Covid vaccine dose, compared to over 40% or more in the other two regions.

“We are far from finished,” said Neumann from HSBC. “That said, if we look at the third quarter, there’s still a risk that at least some glitches will get through. We just need these vaccines. We need more supply. We have to introduce them. “

Economic recovery

Neumann said that based on publicly available information, HSBC predicts that many Asian countries will not achieve herd immunity until early 2022 at the earliest.

“That means some of the restrictions, especially on travel, remain in place, and unfortunately that still means a bit of a bumpy road for the next few months,” he said.

When a country reaches herd immunity, it means that the virus can no longer spread rapidly because most of the population is either fully vaccinated or would have become immune from infection.

In a release, Neumann and other HSBC analysts said they expect local demand growth in the region to pick up pace over the next six months. It is due to a large, expected surge in vaccine distribution, they said.

According to the bank, exports remain strong despite ongoing transport disruptions and supply chain bottlenecks.

“The latter should slowly subside as demand for services recalibrates and factories make up for lost time. However, the crisis has shown that there is an urgent need for more investment in capacity – expect investment to rise as the region tiptoe out of the pandemic, ”wrote the HSBC analysts.

The investment bank forecast that Asia (excluding Australia and New Zealand) will grow 6.6% year-on-year in 2021 – compared to a 0.9% decline in the previous year – and 4.6% in 2022.

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Moody’s Analytics on Covid outbreaks in Asia, Fed fee hikes in 2023

Moody's Analytics on Covid outbreaks in Asia, Fed rate hikes in 2023

Asian countries need to tame the current waves of the coronavirus outbreak to prepare their economies for future rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve, an economist said Monday.

Fed officials said last week that rate hikes could happen as early as 2023, diverging from earlier comments in March that said the US Federal Reserve doesn’t expect a hike until at least 2024.

Higher US rates would attract overseas investors, and central banks in other countries may have to raise their own rates in defense. Raising interest rates could help countries prevent too much capital from leaving their economies, but increasing interest rates too quickly increases the risk of an economic slowdown.

“The Asian countries need to get Covid under control so that once the Federal Reserve starts raising interest rates, the economies here have an advantage and can make the transition,” said Steve Cochrane, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at Moody’s Analytics CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia”.

Cochrane predicted that the US Federal Reserve could hike rates by 25 basis points once per quarter starting in 2023. The so-called dot plot of the expectations of individual Fed members indicated two rate hikes this year.

Asian countries need to get a grip on Covid so that as soon as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, the economies have an advantage here and can also handle the transition.

Steve Cochrane

Chief Economist APAC, Moody’s Analytics

Many economies in Asia, including Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia, have seen a renewed spike in Covid cases in recent months – which has forced authorities to impose stricter social distancing measures. The new waves of infection come as vaccination progress in the region lags behind that in the US and Europe.

The World Bank said in a report this month that economic output in two-thirds of East Asian and Pacific countries will remain below pre-pandemic levels through 2022. Factors dampening potential economic growth in these countries include widespread Covid outbreaks and a collapse in global tourism, the bank said.

Cochrane noted that Covid outbreaks across the region are “stilling” domestic demand and keeping inflation moderate.

The economist said several Asian countries, including China, South Korea and Singapore, are stepping up Covid vaccinations. “It looks good, but it has to go on,” he said.

But other countries, including Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, have not effectively controlled the outbreak and do not yet have strong immunization programs, Cochrane added.

– CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed to this report.